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Lesold, Constance, 2010 April 7

Biographical / Historical

Constance "Connie" Lesold was born in North Carolina in 1938. She first visited the
Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights in 1966 and had an apartment with her husband,
Helmuth Lesold, by 1967. The couple had one son, Benjamin, who was born in 1970. She
is a social worker, who was president of the Parkway Independent Democrats and an
official of Community Board Eight. Along with her husband, several Brooklyn community
boards, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and a public coalition, she opposed the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority's move to end service on the Franklin Avenue Shuttle in the
mid-1990s. A widow since 1994, she volunteered with the Brooklyn Mental Hygiene Court
Monitors Project and became a member of Disabled in Action. In 2004, she joined a
group occupying a firehouse that shut down service in Williamsburg. Lesold joined
lawmakers and citizens at the Capitol in Albany to protest rent control regulations
in 2015 and she remains an active participant in MTA Board hearings.

Scope and Contents

Constance Lesold begins the interview by talking about her first memories of the Crown
Heights neighborhood in 1966. She talks about her late husband, Helmuth Lesold, and
the early years of their marriage in an apartment building on Eastern Parkway. Along
with other residents, they petitioned their landlord to integrate their building.
She remembers the dramatic change in the fall of 1967, when Whites became the minority
in the diversifying community. Lesold refers to the multicultural school her son attended.
She focuses on the battle to save the Franklin Avenue Shuttle from permanent closure
and names the pivotal activists involved: her husband, Sybil Holmes, Community Boards
Three, Eight and Nine, Borough Presidents Howard Golden and Marty Markowitz, Councilwoman
Mary Pinkett, the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Lesold makes the
point that there is still work to do in subway accessibility, and discusses the garden
above the Franklin Avenue Shuttle that was vandalized by Transit Police. The Atlantic
Yards Project, the Daily News' departure, and past efforts to get federal funding
for neighborhoods are the other concerns for Lesold. She concludes with advice for
young activists. Interview conducted by Alex Kelly.

Conditions Governing Access and Use

Access to the interview is available onsite at the Brooklyn Historical Society's Othmer
Library and online on the Oral History Portal. Use of the oral histories other than for private study, scholarship, or research
requires the permission of BHS. For assistance, contact library@brooklynhistory.org.